New Delhi/Chandigarh, May 4
Candidates from the region made a clean sweep of
the top three spots in the Civil Services Examinations 2011, results of which were declared today.

While AIIMS graduate Shena Aggarwal of Yamunanagar topped the coveted exam, Rukmani Riar, a social scientist from Hoshiarpur, came in second. IITian Prince Dhawan from Chandigarh tripled the region’s joy by clinching the third spot.

Apart from the top three positions, Ludhiana youth Himanshu Gupta is the fourth candidate from the region in the top 10 with all-India rank 7.

Top ranker Shena Aggarwal did her MBBS from AIIMS and made it to the Indian Revenue Service last year. Currently undergoing training in Nagpur, Shena attributes her success to her teachers and parents.

Women steal the show

It is the second time in two years that women candidates have bagged the top two positions in the prestigious exam

Syed Sehrish Asghar became the second Muslim woman ever from J-K to crack the exam

“I was pleasantly surprised with the result. This was my third attempt and I didn't expect to top. I have always believed that any goal could be achieved through hard labour and commitment. I am grateful to God,” says the 25-year-old, who did her matriculation from Sant Nischal Public School in Yamunanagar scoring 95%.

Shena’s father, Dr CK Aggarwal, who runs a clinic in Yamunanagar, says she always wanted to be an IAS officer. “Shena was always a hardworking and thorough student. She had been preparing for the Civil Services since her school days,” he says.

Hoshiarpur girl Rukmani Riar, a masters in social entrepreneurship from Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Social Sciences, cleared the Civil Services exam in her very first attempt. The only child of her parents, the 24-year-old is ready to wage war against corruption and the corrupt.

“I always wanted to serve the people and my country with dedication and honesty and have now got a golden opportunity to do so. I will remain honest during my service and do justice with the poor,” says Rukmani, who used to study more than 10 hours on any given day.

All-India third rank holder Prince Dhawan, all of 22, did his BTech from IIT Delhi last year in electrical engineering and MTech in information and communication technology. Son of an IRS officer, Prince was always a meritorious student.

“I stood first in the CBSE’s Ajmer region in Class XII. During my graduation, I got the Director’s gold medal for being the best all-round student in the entire batch apart from gold and silver medals for specialisation in my particular stream,” he says.

Ludhiana lad Himanshu Gupta, a BITS-Pilani graduate, had cleared the
Indian Forest Services examination in March, securing the 5th rank. This was the 24-year-old’s second attempt. He left his job with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited at Bangalore and set out to realise his father’s dream.

“There are no shortcuts and one just needs to stay focused. Coaching helps and I took coaching from different institutes for different subjects. Have faith in yourself and in God,” says Himanshu.

“He is a blessed child and has been a top-scorer since childhood. He was good at studies and we never had to tell him to study,” says proud father Ravi Kumar Gupta, a government contractor.

Nine candidates from the Chandigarh-Panchkula-Mohali Tricity region made it to the top 100, a remarkable improvement from last time when none had got into the list. Following Prince is Sanyam at all-India rank 12. The IIT Kanpur graduate had bagged rank 449 last year, but wanted to improve his rank, which he did in style.

Apart from Syed Sehrish Asghar (see box), also doing Jammu and Kashmir proud is Mohammad Aijaz, a tribal from a remote border village of Poonch district who bagged the 168th rank, and Raj Kamal Arya of Jammu with rank 882.

Of the top 25 candidates, 13 appeared from Delhi; three from Jaipur; two each from Mumbai and Chandigarh and one each from Hyderabad, Chennai, Dispur, Patna and Jammu centres. A total of 4,72,290 candidates applied for the exam, out of which 2,43,003 wrote the test.

According to a release by the Department of Personnel and Training, 910 candidates — 715 male and 195 female —have been selected for appointments to various central services like the IAS, IFS and IPS among others. The list of selected candidates includes 420 General (including 21 physically challenged), 255 Other Backward Classes (including eight physically challenged), 157 Scheduled Castes (including four physically challenged) and 78 Scheduled Tribes candidates.

(Inputs from Jyoti Rai in Delhi, Amit Sharma in Chandigarh, Gurvinder Singh in Ludhiana, Suman Bhatnagar in Yamunanagar and Malvika Sharma in Jammu)